A ChatGPT Starter Pack
I’m alarmed.
As I meet people from around the world at events and my workshops, the conversation inevitably leads to ChatGPT (which has become the catch-all phrase for AI!). The response from friends is something like this:
“Yeah I tried it, but I couldn’t really get it to do anything useful. I gave up.”
Yikes.
AI isn’t our future. It’s our present. We need to be experimenting with this super-charged power now to stay relevant and ahead of the competition.
With the help of some of my brainy friends in the RISE community, I’ve come up with a ChatGPT starter pack of prompts that would be useful to almost any business. This post covers:
1. Discover hidden relationships that lead to sales
2. Have the world’s greatest experts create your web copy
3. Rapidly apply genius new ideas to your business
4. Get organized
5. Forecast sales growth scenarios
6. Find ideal job candidates
7. Brainstorm new business ideas
8. Determine a competitive strategy
9. Create better sales presentations
10. Create an international presence
If you’re still on the fence about AI, this ChatGPT starter pack is for you. These are easy tests that provide some amazing results. I think they’ll inspire you to dig further into how AI can elevate nearly any business!
1. Discover hidden relationships that lead to sales
Ask ChatGPT to seek unusual relationships that might give you clues about buying patterns. For example, I randomly chose to learn about whether the weather could impact the sale of picture frames. The response is truncated to save room in the post.
Although these ideas might not be perfect, there are concepts here that could lead to deeper investigations and even a revelation. Another random idea …
Suggestion number one is obvious, but could a restaurant create promotions that align with these other days?
2. Have the world’s greatest experts create your web copy
The next entry in the ChatGPT starter pack comes from Web3 Expert Joeri Billast. His ChatGPT prompt cleverly pits great marketing minds against each other to create the best web copy!
Prompt: Imagine you’re a top funnel marketing strategist and you’re in a battle against Russell Brunson, Gary Vee, and Ryan Deiss.
You need to win against win and define the best possible out-of-box converting landing page for my Web3 Marketing Mastermind
This is the current landing page to start from:
<copy and paste page content>
***ANSWER CHATGPT***
Okay thank you, you did well, but you’re still in third place. You’ll need to do better and think more out of the box.
Please try again and be more original this time.
***ANSWER CHATGPT***
Okay great. You’re now in second place and in the final against Russel Brunson.
So put some extra effort into it. You want to win, remember.
Go ahead and come up with your best ideas.
***ANSWER CHATGPT***
Awesome! Congrats. You won!!
3. Rapidly apply genius new ideas to your business
Let’s say you’re reading a relevant new business book and you’ve highlighted some exciting new ideas that could be relevant to your business. Let’s ask ChatGPT for help applying these principles quickly.
I’m a fan of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s books about influence. One of his principles revolves around the power of reciprocity to drive action. How does reciprocity connect to selling automobiles?
We’ll use the prompt: Apply the concept of Y to X. Give me five options.
Apply the concept of reciprocity to selling cars. Give me five options:
I’m not in the auto business, but these ideas were unexpected. Made me wonder how you could make a test drive so extraordinary that the customer feels they owe you the sale.
Instead of highlighting good ideas in a book, why not test them out through ChatGPT as you read them?
4. Get organized
Kami Huyse is the founder of both Smart Social Mastery and Zoetica Media, so she has to stay organized! Here is an idea she uses in her business:
If you’ve ever had a list of items you need to format into a table, you know how tedious the ensuing cut-and-paste can be. One of my favorite ChatGPT prompts has put an end to this and does all the heavy lifting for me.
Prompt: Please place this list of items into a table with one line each and two columns. Leave the second column blank.
[Add your list of items here]Or, if you have data for the second column, add:
Put this list of items in the second column.
[Add your list of items here]5. Forecast sales growth scenarios
We’re not able to predict the future; ChatGPT even less so. But it can help us formulate scenarios and unearth obstacles and opportunities we might face along the way.
Example prompt:
Analyze the future sales of electric bicycles by 2030. Provide multiple scenarios, each with a precise percentage of adoption and the assumptions underlying the prediction.
Result:
As an AI language model, I don’t have access to real-time data, and my knowledge is limited to information available up to September 2021. Therefore, I can’t provide precise predictions for the future sales of electric bicycles by 2030. However, I can outline multiple scenarios based on potential adoption rates and some underlying assumptions.
Scenario 1: Conservative Growth (10% adoption)
Assumptions:
- Slow technological advancements in electric bicycle technology.
- Limited government incentives and subsidies for electric bicycles.
- Moderate marketing efforts by bicycle manufacturers and retailers.
- Relatively stable consumer preferences, with a slow shift towards eco-friendly transportation options.
Scenario 2: Moderate Growth (25% adoption)
Assumptions:
- Steady improvements in electric bicycle technology, resulting in more affordable and efficient models.
- Government initiatives promoting eco-friendly transportation and providing subsidies for electric bicycles.
- Increased marketing and awareness campaigns by bicycle manufacturers and environmental organizations.
- Growing concerns about urban congestion and air pollution, leading to a greater interest in electric bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation.
Scenario 3: Rapid Growth (50% adoption)
Assumptions:
- Significant advancements in electric bicycle technology, including lighter and more powerful batteries, longer ranges, and improved designs.
- Strong government support with substantial incentives, tax breaks, and investment in cycling infrastructure.
- Intense marketing efforts from bicycle manufacturers and collaborations with ride-sharing platforms to promote electric bicycles as a convenient and green transportation option.
- A cultural shift towards sustainability and environmentally-friendly modes of transportation.
Scenario 4: Disruptive Growth (80% adoption)
Assumptions:
- Revolutionary breakthroughs in electric bicycle technology, making them highly affordable, efficient, and appealing to a wide audience.
- Government policies that heavily favor electric bicycles, such as restricted access to traditional vehicles in urban areas or additional taxes on fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
- Extensive marketing campaigns creating a strong societal norm of using electric bicycles for commuting and leisure.
- Widespread adoption of shared electric bicycle services, making them easily accessible and convenient for the general population.
Obviously these scenarios are speculative and do not represent actual predictions. Accurate predictions would require access to the most up-to-date data and detailed analysis from domain experts, but that information will probably come with time. This prompt will probably become more useful as AI improves.
6. Find ideal job candidates
There is probably no bigger problem facing businesses than attracting and retaining the right talent. My friend Spencer Crandall specializes in helping small businesses with their eCommerce, so he’s always thinking about ways to help his customers gain an edge. He contributed this idea:
ChatGPT can help you attract the right candidates for open positions. First, make a list of the most important “soft skills” you’re seeking in new team members. For example, depending on the position and the work culture, you may need someone who is highly productive, an effective mediator, or skilled communicator. Ask ChatGPT to compose the ideal job posting.
[Prompt]Help me write a job posting for [position name] at a [company type] named [company name]. Here is a short description of the company and a few specific work requirements: [text here].
[Generate] [Follow-Up Prompt #1]Adjust the tone for someone with these qualities: [add in qualities of the individual you wish to attract – for example, “a good communicator,r” “loves to be busy,” “wants to do the right thing,” etc.] [Follow-Up Prompt #2]
Adjust the tone for someone who would be motivated by a work environment that is [add in qualities – for example, “highly productive,” “values quality above quantity,” “centers the business around the customer,” etc.]
Continue to adjust until it describes the ideal candidate.
7. Brainstorm new business ideas
ChatGPT is supremely good at generating ideas, and it’s being applied to new business ventures at a rapid pace.
Ethan Mollick of Wharton University reported in his newsletter that researchers staged an idea generation contest: pitting ChatGPT-4 against the students in a popular innovation class that has historically led to many startups. They used human judges to assess idea quality and found that ChatGPT generated more, cheaper, and better ideas than the students.
Even more impressive, from a business perspective, was that the purchase intent from outside judges was higher for the AI-generated ideas as well! Of the 40 best ideas rated by the judges, 35 came from ChatGPT.
Here is an example of a prompt used in the research experiment:
You are a creative entrepreneur looking to generate new product ideas. The product will target college students in the United States. It should be a physical good, not a service or software. I’d like a product that could be sold at a retail price of less than about USD 50. The ideas are just ideas. The product need not yet exist, nor may it necessarily be clearly feasible. Number all ideas and give them a name. The name and idea are separated by a colon. And also provided a second user prompt: Please generate ten ideas as ten separate paragraphs.
They repeated this process several times, because generating a lot of ideas is useful.
In my experiments, even simple prompts seemed to work fine. Try this one:
“Explore innovative new business ideas in [industry/sector].”
Replace “[industry/sector]” with the specific industry or sector you’re interested in. This prompt structure helps narrow down the focus of the generated ideas and encourages the model to provide creative suggestions within that context.
For example, if you’re interested in sustainable fashion, your prompt could be:
“Explore innovative business ideas in the sustainable fashion industry.”
Now, push ChatGPT to work harder for you. Follow this prompt with a second one:
Dig deeper into the most promising business idea related to [industry/sector] that you generated earlier. Provide details about the target audience, unique value proposition, and potential challenges.
Remember to keep your prompts clear and specific to get the best results. You can also iterate and experiment with different prompts to see which ones yield the most promising and creative business ideas.
8. Determine a competitive strategy
You can use this prompt for your business, a customer, or even a competitor. This comes from B2B marketing consultant Aaron Hassen and his son Andrew.
Andrew used Google Bard and asked:
(insert website link here)
Based on the link above, what is this company’s target market?
Andrew then asked,
Pretend you are a marketing strategy consultant. What marketing recommendations would you give to this company based on the information above?
Since Bard is currently connected to more current information than ChatGPT, it’s a better choice for this prompt. You’ll probably get a highly detailed strategy document from this exercise.
9. Create better sales presentations
Let’s face it. Presenting to potential customers is an art. Once you finally land that all-important meeting, you want to make sure you are prepared as can be. If you struggle with effective writing and presenting, here are a few ideas that can help you.
This prompt can create a very effective sales presentation draft, including recommendations for collateral material:
Prompt: I am creating a sales presentation on (your product). You can find product characteristics here (website URL). Create a sale pitch on this product for a skeptical buyer of (your product). Provide detailed recommendations for my presentation.
I’ve used this prompt a lot and the results are just amazing!
Frank Prendergast, a digital and creative consultant, notes that even when you use ChatGPT to help create a presentation, it can default to a very dry, corporate-speak tone. To combat this, you can work through a writing task with ChatGPT until you reach a point where the overall goals have been achieved, and the structure is solid.
The problem is, a prompt like “can you rewrite this to be more conversational” isn’t reliable. You can end up with all kinds of output — quite often an overly folksy, slang-laden voice that is inappropriate in a business setting.
A better option is to redirect ChatGPT using role play. Be really specific about where the conversation is taking place, the role you are playing, and the role ChatGPT is playing. Like this:
“Building on the sales presentation you just provided, Imagine that we are sitting in a local coffee shop, the kind that serves pour-over coffee that they roast locally. You are the potential customer of our business, and I am pitching you on our product using the presentation you provided. I’ve already shared with you details about the product and the terms of the contract. How would I re-write the first presentation you gave me to be more effective in this setting?”
The result will be a much more human, and natural-sounding version of the first copy ChatGPT provided
Joanne Taylor, a wonderful editor who has helped me with a recent book, offered another twist on this challenge:
ChatGPT is actually really good at presenting counterarguments and criticisms! Let’s use her ideas to build on the presentation framework Frank’s coffee shop scenario provided.
Try this: Building on the previous output, ask 5 awkward and challenging questions about my presentation on that I might find difficult or uncomfortable to answer.
This technique can help coach you through unexpected customer challenges and questions.
Finally, let’s generate some stunning images to use in your slide deck! I’m having fun with this simple hack. Ask for art ideas in the style of various artists. I prefer MidJourney for my experimentation.
Prompt: create an image of (name the subject), in the style of (name artist here)
Here’s what happened when I randomly asked for an image of a boy riding a bike on the moon in the style of Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, and Roy Lichtenstein:
Note that all I used was this one simple prompt to generate pretty impressive images. My friend Shelly Palmer curated the works of some well-known artists that can serve as prompts for your prompts.
Here’s an image I generated for an upcoming blog post on word-of-mouth marketing. It’s in the style of Norman Rockwell:
Please note that using AI-generated prompts for commercial gain is still in a legal gray area. Be careful with how you use your images in ads and other commercial activities.
10. Create an international presence
ChatGPT is extremely good at language translation. Why not use it to enter new markets and develop international relationships?
With ChatGPT you can translate a language from one to another, not just word for word but in different tones and styles to communicate effectively. Check it out:
You can also use it to translate customer queries you may receive in languages you are not well versed in and then frame a response in that language. I use this application to respond to Linkedin messages in other languages.
Other ChatGPT Starter Pack Resources
This is not the first time I’ve written about using ChatGPT for practical business applications.
Here are more ideas covered in previous articles. Click on the link for details.
Beyond the Basics: 20 Non-Obvious Uses of ChatGPT for Marketing
Includes:
- Summarize survey data
- Fast market analysis
- Summarize complex podcast show notes
- ChatGPT for marketing strategy
- Improve headlines/ad copy
- Keyword research
- Create a mindmap for a product introduction
- Create instant social media posts
- Plan an event
- Find target customers
- Outline an ad campaign
- Product demonstrations
- Calculate CAC and LTV
- Lead nurturing
- Create a simple engagement process
- Make your message more accessible
- Optimize FAQs
- ChatGPT for marketing research
- Design your own creations
- Adjust the marketing organization
20 Entertaining Uses of ChatGPT You Never Knew Were Possible
- Write a Twitter thread
- Write a novel
- Guest speaker Q&A prompts
- Creating games
- Dating help
- Dealing with loneliness and anxiety
- Naming things
- Translation on the go
- Fitness
- Coding and integrations10. Lesson plans for teachers
- Find podcast guests
- Handle social media comments and reviews
- Crime fighting
- Reduce bias
- Furniture design
- Create a serialized novel
- Prep for an interview
- Gift ideas
- Explaining complex concepts
- Editing for AP style
Other additions to a ChatGPT starter pack
This article projects where humans might thrive in the world of AI-generated content.
A post on how to prepare your career for an intrusion of AI.
Finally, here is a perspective on the ethics of using ChatGPT in your work.
Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.
Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.
Illustrations courtesy MidJourney
